Today, a telecommunications network can carry data at extremely high speeds, such as up to 10 Gigabits/second, using optical network technology. A widely adopted optical network technology is Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (“SONET/SDH”) technology. SONET/SDH technology uses optical fibers and nodes, such as Add-Drop Multiplexers (“ADMs”) and Digital Cross-Connects (“DCS”), to carry data. International and North American standard bodies have defined various SONET/SDH configurations for the operation of optical networks.
Typically, SONET/SDH devices are managed in a top-down manner by a centralized management system. In a centralized management system, topology definition and circuit assignments are controlled by a server and database. For example, the server calculates routes through a network of SONET/SDH devices and provisions circuits in the network based on the calculated routes. The database stores the information that tracks the routes and provisioned circuits. The information is typically entered manually, for example, by an administrator and must be updated on a continual basis.
Unfortunately, known management systems suffer from several problems. The information in the management system database often becomes out of sync with actual conditions in the network. This is because devices in the network are continually being changed, such as for maintenance, or installation of new equipment. For example, a new interface card may be installed in an existing node or a node may be taken down for maintenance. In addition, various failures may occur in the network, such as an equipment failure or cut in the optical fiber, which causes the configuration of the network to change. However, known management systems require time to incorporate any of these changes into the database.
In addition, the network management database may become corrupted. For example, one or more files in the database may have one or more errors when being stored, or one or more files in the database may be inadvertently deleted. In these instances, the network management system may lose all or part of its information on the topology and provisioning of the network.
These problems cause known network management systems for SONET/SDH networks to be difficult to manage and slow to react to changes in network conditions. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a network management system that is capable of efficiently reacting to network changes, such as during a failure or maintenance. In addition, it would be desirable to provide a network management system that is capable of efficiently collecting information on the topology and provisioning of a network.